Cuddling By The Fire
by jekkah
Summary: Written for RogueStorm84 for the CCOAC Christmas exhange. Hotch and Morgan spend a quiet Christmas evening reflecting on their family.


_Author's Note: This was written for the CCOAC Christmas Exchange (my favorite activity all year!). I got **RogueStorm84**. My pairing was **Aaron Hotchner/Derek Morgan**. My prompts were "**The 12 Days of Christmas, mistletoe, children excitedly opening Christmas gifts from Santa, cuddle by the fire exchanging Christmas tales.**" I got all the prompts into the story._

_Have a wonderful holiday season, Rogue!_

**CUDDLING BY THE FIRE**

"This was a good Christmas," Morgan said as his husband of four years sat down beside him and handed him a hot chocolate. They were sitting on the floor with their backs against the couch. A roaring fire raged in the fireplace warming them both.

"Definitely one of the best," Hotch agreed, cuddling up to Morgan. He interlaced their fingers together and kissed Morgan's temple sweetly. Hotch sighed. "The boys really seemed to have a good time."

Morgan chuckled. "I'm just happy that they waited until 5:30 to wake us up this year."

Hotch took a sip of his hot chocolate. "We should enjoy it while we can. Jack will be a teenager next year. We'll be dragging him out of bed instead of the other way around."

"Do you remember Tyson's first Christmas with us?" Morgan asked. Tyson was their five-year-old. He had been adopted when he was two causing Hotch to retire from the FBI and become an at-home consultant. "He had only been with us for like three months."

"He was completely overwhelmed by the pile of presents at first," Hotch replied, reliving the memory in his own mind. "He just kept staring at them like he thought they would disappear. When Jack finally coaxed him into opening the first one, he became a holy terror hellbent on opening all of our gifts."

Morgan smiled. "We're lucky Jack loved being a brother idea. That could have been ugly."

Hotch nodded, placing the hot chocolate on the coffee table. He did the same to Morgan's before wrapping his arms around Morgan and pulling him close. "We're pretty lucky to have Jack. The mistletoe was his idea."

"The mistletoe? The one where we shared our first kiss?" Morgan clarified.

"That's the one. He insisted that all Christmas parties needed to have mistletoe in the doorway. Then, he waited until you were standing under it to trick me into standing under it, too," Hotch explained.

Morgan felt his eyes grow wet. "Why?"

Hotch placed a soft kiss on Morgan's lips. "He said that he hadn't seen me smile around anyone like I smiled around you. He said my eyes sparkled."

"I thought he didn't like me," Morgan confessed.

"He always like you. He just a bit afraid of you." Hotch shrugged. "Not that it matters now. You are two peas in a pod. It's a good thing that Tyson takes after me."

Morgan turned and nipped Hotch's ear. "Remind me to talk to him about that."

Hotch once again linked their hands together. "I was so lost before that kiss. After Haley and Beth, I didn't think I could ever love again, but you came along, this person that had been in my life for so long and gave me... and Jack... a reason to smile again."

"You give me a reason to smile every day," Morgan replied, shooting him a dashing smile.

"Funny. I don't remember marrying such a sap."

Morgan narrowed his eyes. "Yeah, well, I knew what I was getting into, Mr. Hardass."

Hotch smirked. "Aw, honey, did I hurt your feelings?"

"Don't even start or I will take you outside and show you why I'm the one that didn't retire from the FBI," Morgan threatened, an undercurrent of teasing in his tone.

"Ouch. Old jokes. I thought we were past that," Hotch replied in mock hurt. His eyes roamed over the Christmas tree, settling on a snowman ornament with two adult and one child snowman. "Do you remember how excited Jack was to give us that ornament?"

Morgan's eyes followed his. "Penelope had to keep it because she was afraid that he would give it to us before Christmas. He was practically jumping up and down while I opened it."

Hotch nodded. "He made me promise not open it. He only wanted you to do it."

"I didn't know that." Morgan surreptitiously wiped his eye. "You know, that gift is what made my mother fall in love with Jack. As soon as Penelope and JJ told her that Jack had picked out that gift himself, he could do no wrong. Don't tell my sisters, but I'm pretty sure that Jack is still her favorite grandchild."

"She's definitely his favorite grandparent," Hotch commented. "He was heartbroken that she wasn't coming out here for Christmas this year. He wants to know if we can go to Chicago next month."

Morgan grabbed a sip of his hot chocolate. "Won't he be surprised when she comes next week to stay for a month?"

Hotch laid his head on Morgan's shoulder. "You'll be the best dad in the world. I am looking forward to Tyson getting some quality time with his grandmother."

"You're just looking for a break from the little ball of energy," Morgan teased. "Do you know that he conned Spencer into giving him extra cookies at the party last night?"

"Well, that explains why he was bouncing off the walls last night," he replied. "Remind me to have a talk to him about what he can and cannot tell his godfather."

Morgan kissed the top of Hotch's head. "Don't be too harsh, they have a special relationship. Did you see the Christmas card that Tyson made for him?"

Hotch cuddled in closer to Morgan, breathing in his spicy scent. "I did. It was the two of them baking cookies. It was very sweet. Did you see the one he made for JJ? He asked her to marry him."

"So, maybe he did inherit something from his pops after all," Morgan bragged.

"Let's just hope it doesn't end us in the principal's office as often as you did to your mother," Hotch retorted. He took a deep breath, concentrating on the crackling in the fire. "I have something I'd like to discuss with you."

Morgan stiffened. "Why do I get the feeling that I'm not going to like this?"

Hotch growled. "Why would you say that?"

"Because the last time you said that, I ended up redoing the entire basement into a playroom, which," he said loudly over Hotch's protests, "turned out wonderfully, but was a pain in the butt to do."

"Well, this won't involve any remodeling... maybe a little repainting, but I could handle that."

Morgan waited a few moments for Hotch to say anything. "Well?"

Hotch took another deep breath. "What do you think about adopting another baby?"

"A baby?" he repeated.

"Or a toddler," Hotch added, quickly. "A little girl this time. One who could wrap her fingers around her dads and her brothers."

Morgan bit his bottom lip. He was already debating the pros and cons in his head. "What brought this on?"

Hotch placed a hand on his knee. "Do you remember Mrs. Johnson? She was one of the volunteers at Tyson's preschool last year. She called me a few days ago. It turns out that her fifteen-year-old granddaughter is pregnant. She wants to put the baby up for adoption, but in an open adoption. Mrs. Johnson immediately thought of us because of the relationship we have with Tyson's grandparents."

"You've known about this for a few days and you're just talking to me now?" Morgan asked, a little put off.

"You were so busy trying to get work done so that you would be available for the boys and me that I didn't want to bother you," Hotch explained. He squeezed Morgan's knee. "We have plenty of time to decided. She's only about nineteen weeks along. They just found out that the baby's a girl. Now, because we've kept up with home study, it wouldn't take much to adopt her, not like what we had to go through with Tyson."

Morgan let out a long whistle. "Yeah, but a baby? I mean, Tyson came to us when he was already two. I don't know how I'd do in the baby stage."

Hotch lifted his head and kissed Morgan. "You would be amazing. I remember how you were with Henry and even with Jack when he was a baby. Take some time to think about it. I told Mrs. Johnson that we would call her in a few weeks."

"You've already named her in your head, haven't you?" Morgan asked him.

"I've always liked the name Julia," Hotch confessed.

Morgan shook his head, knowing he was already losing this battle and not sure he wanted to win it anyway. In the few minutes since Hotch had brought up the idea, a feeling of completeness had settled in his soul. "Well, have to discuss it with Jack and Tyson. They have to have a say."

"Absolutely."

"And we'll probably end up with my mother here permanently. She doesn't have any granddaughters yet," Morgan continued, amused over the thought of his mother's reactions to finally having a little girl to dress up.

Hotch grinned. "I love your mother. We can convert the playroom into a little apartment for her."

Morgan reached up and cupped his cheek. "You just have everything planned, don't you?"

"I think it would be good for us, good for our family," Hotch told him. "It just feels right. But I'm serious when I say I want us to think this over for awhile. We all have to agree to this."

"You're getting up with her in the middle of the night," Morgan replied.

Hotch's eyes light up. "I'm up for it."

Morgan kissed him. He pulled back to murmur against his lips, "In the meantime, I think it's time to take care of something else that's 'up'." Morgan brought his lips crashing back down onto Hotch's. He had just pushed Hotch towards the floor when a noise from the stairs caused them both to jump up.

"Dad?" Jack called out, his voice hoarse with sleep. He entered the living room with an embarrassed look on his face at seeing his so disheveled.

"What are you doing up, Jack?" Hotch asked as Morgan turned in his arms. "You should be asleep. We've had a long day and we still have to go to Uncle Dave's tomorrow."

Jack shrugged. "Tyson is sleeping in my room, but he won't stop singing 'The Twelve Days of Christmas' in his sleep. Can we ban Henry from teaching him any more songs?"

Morgan chuckled as he turned his head towards Hotch. "And you want to have another one."

"Another one?" Jack repeated loudly.

"Derek!" Hotch hissed. He turned timidly back to Jack. "What do you think about having a sister?"

He folded his arms and frowned. "As long as we're still getting the puppy you promised, that's fine with me."

Hotch nodded. "We'll go this week while Derek's home."

"Great!" Jack exclaimed. He looked to Morgan. "So, Pops, you wanna come get Tyson out of my room?"

"Sure thing, kiddo," Morgan agreed. He wrapped his arm around Jack and led him upstairs. Hotch stood at the bottom of the stairs listening as they joked, his heart filled with overwhelming joy.

Christmas had never seemed quite so perfect as it did right then.

THE END


End file.
